China Travels: Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Before I left on this trip to Mainland China, I have heard about Fengdu Ghost City. I could never understand what they meant by Ghost City despite reading up about it.

I had thought that Fengdu Ghost City is an abandoned town which no one lives in and it’s inhabited by ghosts. When I arrived, I realised how wrong I was. Hahahahaha. It essentially is a way larger version of Haw Par Villa sitting atop a huge hill and each of them Gods and Deities have their own temple dedicated to them.

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City is basically the “Capital of the Ghost/Underworld”. I don’t know if the place is really inhabited by ghosts or not but it was said that Fengdu Ghost City is where the Gates of Hell are and it leads to your judgement in front of King Hades.

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

This temple in the photo above is from the Ming Dynasty and is about 600 years old(?). It is currently undergoing some restoration works and it houses the various deities who will judge you in front of the King of Hades (statue inside, I do not dare to take a picture of his image).

I don’t know if it was coincidence or my overactive imagination but the walls of this template is light blue and the place was particularly dim and cool. I thought I had felt a gust of wind at my neck twice while I was in that temple. I also felt a coolness in the air coming out from the exhibit area when I looked at the figurines which depicts the tortures for the various earthly sins.

For the record, I wan’t freaked out; my conscience is clear. 🙂

This was a very stark contrast to the temple that house the statue of the Jade Emperor. The interior of the Jade Emperor Temple was very bright (yellow walls) and it felt rather warm actually.

So yeah, it is up to you to believe in all these or not. 🙂 No pressure.

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城)

PS: if you are interested in more of such ghostly stuff, it was mentioned by our tour guide on the trip that there is a myth(?) that the Miao Minority Ethnic Group in the Xiangxi/Hunan area used to have this sorcery practice called “赶尸 (Corpse Herding)” to move corpse from one place to another when transportation wasn’t as efficient back then.

It was from this “赶尸 (Corpse Herding)” practice which formed the basis of the Chinese “Vampire/Zombie” movies which you might be familiar with.

I’ll admit that I’m too scared to watch the documentaries about “赶尸 (Corpse Herding)” on YouKu and TuDou. So if anyone of you actually went to watch, tell me about it. 😀 I’m really quite curious about that.